Authors: Stephen W Bennett
Koban (21 page)
Then he launched into a detailed briefing, sparing only the gruesome
cleanup details, but not the confirmation of how the bodies had been disposed. He
explained the Krall’s technological advantage in Jump capability and Trap field
use. That they were in effect under tow by the Krall Clanship at a much higher speed
than the Flight of Fancy could have accomplished.
He explained they would go farther, in less time that a normal
Jump, to a camp on a planet he only knew was named Koban. There were an unknown
number of other humans already held prisoner there, and the Krall were seeking many
more captives. The time of flight would be short, perhaps only four days, so they
needed to prepare everyone mentally for that arrival. There was a short period of
Q & A, then Fisher cut it off and invited Noreen to talk.
Noreen offered only a few other details, mostly about the repairs
her team had made. Then came Dillon, and contrary to Fisher’s claim that he might
have unique observations to add, exasperated his mentor when all he did was confirm
the two officer’s statements where he could. Oh well, he was here for another reason
entirely, after all, and it had little to do with the current briefings.
Fisher stood, thanked the two officers for their remarkable service,
and explained that the board would discuss matters further on their own, perhaps
for hours. They would make decisions on how they would present this information
to the rest of the consortium, probably in a ship wide meeting so as to do it more
quickly. She promised to furnish the Captain with any recommendations they might
propose concerning regulating themselves concerning interactions with the Krall.
The latter would be up to the Captain for final approval, as master of the ship.
Finally,
Mirikami and Noreen stepped out and closed the doors behind them.
Walking slowly down the corridor, the Captain spoke first. “Noreen,
this has been a terrible and tiring night and morning. I want you to eat something
if you can, and go off duty for some very well earned sleep.”
“Thank you Sir, I will, but I’ll check with Ms. Jorl’sn, and
make sure I’m called if needed. You need rest more than I do I think. That hideous
cleanup must have been more horrible than the gruesome glimpse I saw. Please tell
me you will do exactly what you just asked me to do. We need you rested and your
mind as sharp as it was today.”
“I will, Noreen. Like you, I’ll check on a few things first.
I also need to update you on what I’ve just arranged with Jake concerning communicating
with him.” He smiled and fingered his lower lip, pausing a moment. “I wonder if
we are still unobserved by the Krall?” Noreen looked at him oddly.
“Yes Sir.
No change,” answered Jake.
“Excellent Jake. Please describe by transducer to my First Officer
my conversation with you earlier in the lounge, or better yet play it back for her.
I’m just too tired to do it myself right now.”
Noreen had caught on. “Ahh, that was what you were doing while
I was getting mobbed, wasn’t it? You were figuring out a way to talk with Jake when
you want. You said it was vital.” Just then, she cocked her head as Jake followed
the Captains orders, and started playing the recording.
Grinning as he saw her tilt her head, he knew literal Jake had
followed through. He saluted her casually, and walked away without a backwards glance.
He headed for a lift that would take him to a shower and a bed in his own stateroom.
“Yes Sir, Telour is on the Bridge. He has been randomly monitoring
your cabin, but is not now. He has also observed Commander Renaldo, who is still
asleep, he watched multiple passenger areas, and monitored crewmembers on duty.
Telour ordered Ms. Jorl’sn to switch cameras randomly for the last three hours and
twenty-four minutes. I believe she is demonstrating fatigue beca...” Here Mirikami
interrupted with “That can wait.”
Jake cut off immediately.
Going to his com panel, he called the Bridge. Jorl’sn answered
promptly, seeing it was from the Captain’s quarters. “Bridge, Jorl’sn.”
“Roni, I’ve had some sleep and will be up to relieve you within
five minutes. Noreen is probably still asleep, and I’ll give her another hour of
rest. Is everything secure?”
Now that sounded stupid,
he thought,
with
alien killers aboard.
“Yes Sir.
I have been following Telour’s instructions as best I can.” She did sound stressed.
“Very good
Roni. I’m on my way.”
He grabbed two energy bars and a cool fruit drink from his tiny
galley supplies, and headed for the Bridge chewing and swallowing as he went. He
needed to shorten the time spent on duty directly under the eyes of a Krall.
He was on the Bridge in less than four minutes, since his and
Noreen’s quarters were close. The other crew berths were below passenger country.
As soon as the lift opened, Telour growled, “You die as long
as all the other humans! How can you be the clan leader of them if you stay in the
same pretend death for so long?”
It was a shocked few seconds before Mirikami thought he grasped
what the Krall meant. “Excuse my stupidity Telour, do you mean the time I was in
my cabin, with the lights out and asleep?”
“Of course!” He actually seemed angry. That was
not
something
you wanted a Krall to feel towards you.
“You did the same as the other humans I watched, that do this
wasteful pretend death. A true clan leader of human animals would not do this, or
would do it less. How can you gain status to lead your clan if you are inactive
just as long as any other human is? You cannot earn status laying down, pretending
death.”
“Telour, all humans need what we call sleep, and do this normally
about one third of the time. We need this inactive time to repair our bodies and
clear our minds, to form permanent memories of what we have learned that day. Don’t
the Krall have a need to do this?”
Telour made a sharp noise that Mirikami thought sounded somewhat
like spitting. “I have seen the humans sleep like death with all of the weak animals
I have studied on Koban. This is part of what makes humans inefficient and prey
animals. The Krall never do this! We are always active because our enemies would
catch us if we were as helpless as you were. I believed that if I found a human
that leads his kind better, as you have done, that this human must have earned the
right to lead because he did more and learned more, by staying active. You did not
sleep as long as many of your kind, but long still, and was as helpless as they.”
“Telour I will try to explain to the best of my ability, but
if this does not require my junior officer to be here, may I relive her and allow
her to go below to eat?”
“Ms. Jorl’sn,
I have the Bridge, and you are relieved and off duty. Please go below.”
“Telour, you have worked with humans on Koban for two years,
some must have acted as leaders. Didn’t they sleep the same as the other humans?”
“On Koban they were not leaders in truth.” He rebutted. “The
false clan leaders on Koban were given that position by other humans. A true leader
earns that right, or will take a position from another by challenge if he has equal
status. Of the humans I saw on Koban, none lead because it was earned. They talk
to convince others to give leadership to them. They have earned no more status,
and often less than those who follow them. And when tested as leaders, they always
fail and die.” He explained.
“Some of us believed, as I did, that it was because your best
leaders had already died in combat when we first met, before learning to honorably
submit to a stronger warrior.”
“I believed I saw a difference with you that told me you must
have earned your right to lead humans. You made right choices when we disabled your
Traps, you ordered your clan to properly submit before our novice warriors found
reason to kill very many. You convinced Parkoda to offer Ra Ka Endo for your clan
before you even reached Koban. This is different than has happened on other raids
or that I heard from other raid leaders.
“My plan was to use your status among humans for my own advantage
on Koban. Now I find that you become inactive the same as other humans, at a time
you should be most alert! Leadership must have been given to you!” The contempt
was evident in the accusation.
Mirikami,
not wanting to lose any edge he unknowingly had gained, used reason in his explanation.
“Telour, I think you took the ability the Krall use to their
advantage to always remain alert, and expected to also find that ability in human
leaders. When you didn’t find it in me, you were angered. I think I can explain
how our way, for humans, is not very different from your way, even if it exposes
us to a weakness you do not have.
“Tell me.” He ordered.
“I just learned from you that the Krall never sleep, yet you
are trying to gain an advantage over Parkoda, as he tries to gain advantage over
you. You and Parkoda are both always awake. You both compete for status, and you
have a plan to gain status from Parkoda’s own prize, even though he is awake as
much as you are. There is no advantage to be found between two Krall if both are
always awake.
“The need to sleep is no disadvantage between humans, because
that is how nature made all humans. We truly are at a disadvantage compared to the
Krall who never sleep, but that is obviously true in every respect.” Stroking their
huge egos seemed to work before.
“There is a small piece of meat in this,” he reluctantly agreed.
“I assume nature made the Krall always awake, which humans cannot
do. If all humans must sleep, then none gains status or advantage over other humans
because of this mutual weakness. Our leaders gain advantage by leading better than
other humans who would also be a leader.”
Mirikami’s last remark caused Telour to shift completely away
from human deficiencies. Like Parkoda he couldn’t resist bragging, nor of correcting
human misconceptions of how the Krall had made themselves powerful, despite evolution’s
own random ways.
“We changed ourselves to always stay alert; nature did not give
us this valuable strength. We have forced nature to give our bodies more speed and
strength, to lose the weaknesses we had long ago. We see more, hear more, sense
more than the ancients could. Only our oldest stories tell of when we were weak
in body, when the Olt’kitapi believed their minds and machines alone were enough
to rule us. That now dead race told us of how their science had helped nature make
their minds great. They promised to give this curse to us as their gift.
“We knew their minds would not protect them if we were strong
and gained their trust. We took their machines and weapons to kill them. We were
used by them on all of their worlds, like strong smart animals they could train.
Lying to us and calling us their friends, while planning to make us as weak as themselves.
“Our old bodies, even so long ago, could easily defeat their
smaller and softer bodies. They were fruit and plant eaters that believed their
brains made them more powerful than we were. When we rose up to attack everywhere
at once, we lost our first home world to them, and many Krall died before our final
victory. After that, we owned their many worlds and machines. We ate them all, like
the food animals they were.
“Those warriors that survived to win the final battles were the
best fighters, the strongest, and the swiftest. Those victors brought us new cubs,
which also grew to be stronger fighters. The Olt’kitapi had told us there were other
races, some that we had not met, that a few had hardly left their home worlds, and
others lived on many worlds. They were to be our future friends, just as the Olt’kitapi
said they were also our friends. We saw the Great Path set before us to follow,
if we were to survive in the galaxy. We could never again be weaker than other
races.
“We awarded the most cubs to the best fighters after we fought
wars. These were no different from those wars we had always fought with our own
clans before the Olt’kitapi ended our traditions. Now we only pick those for breeding
when we find strength in our greatest warriors. Different clans breed for new strengths,
so they can trade cubs with other clans for different strengths. We chose those
new strengths that nature created for some but would not give to all, and gave them
to every Krall as we walk the Great Path.”
He sounded almost as if he was reciting a litany, and perhaps
he was.
“We slowly found the races we had been told existed. They were
new prey to light our Path. When an enemy was defeated, we returned to fighting
ourselves until we found new prey. We have fought ourselves for many breeding cycles
now, testing clan against clan. However, finding humans with so many numbers, and
many worlds, we are testing against you now.
“I think humans can be pushed to become a worthy enemy, but not
every clan agrees. Some want to waste you for food animals, only they have never
tasted your unpleasant sweet meat. There are too many of you to keep as slaves for
making or growing what we need, and we already have good slaves now.
“We have not increased our numbers for many cycles, because we
cull many weak warriors ourselves, fighting between clans. If we slow the culling
we can grow to great numbers, but that is standing on the Path, not even walking.
We need wars with a worthy enemy, so we can run on the Great Path.